Heartwarming / Horizon Forbidden West

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies to all Heartwarming pages. Proceed at your own risk.

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In General

• In a similar vein to riding mounts for the first time in the first game, Aloy seems to really enjoy gliding. Her comments when opening up her glider are always upbeat and playful and she's always eager to glide from tall places.
  Aloy: Falling...gently.
• Aloy always treats Tallnecks kindly, seeing as they are one of the few docile machines in the Horizon universe. She shows disdain for the Oseram who tried taking one down, apologizing to it for doing the same so she could fix it. Aloy also welcomes back the Tallneck near Landfall's Legacy after repairing it. When she is overriding a Tallneck, she always 'comforts' the Tallneck during the process.
• Erend is obsessed with Concrete Beach Party's music, which is heartwarming if you know that the band had broken up sometime after the dam closed down in the Frozen Wilds DLC. The fact that their music is being enjoyed again in the future by a devoted fan is awesome.

Main Story

Prologue

• After the Battle of Meridian, when Aloy ditched the party being held in her honor, Varl proceeded to spend six months tracking her down to give her whatever help she might need. This started long before the Blight, so he had no idea there was any threat she needed help with. He also pushed himself hard enough to catch up to her and help so much that he didn't even have time to shave and has grown a full beard and moustache by the time he does find her, showing his devotion to helping Aloy out because he knows that she's going so far because it's important. As a bonus, it becomes clear why he struggled so hard to catch up to Aloy: she has access to machine mounts to get around the land quicker and faster than anybody, whereas Varl had to follow her trail on foot the whole way, for months, just to catch up, for no other reason that his obligation to help alleviate Aloy's burden a little—and he did.
• Varl's embracing of Old World high technology. Despite being a Nora and growing up instilled with their Old World phobias, he quickly picks up Focus usage and is seen teaching Erend how to operate its user interface when returning to the Base at one point... complete with exasperation that the technically inclined often feel while teaching the technically inept.
• There's something heartwarming about Varl using a Focus for the first time, even just to read a basic AR signpost.
  Varl: [in amazement] This is what you've been seeing this whole time?
  Aloy: Ever since I was a little girl.
• When we last saw Prince Itamen, he was a scared boy clinging to his mother while they were both trapped in the Gilded Cage of the Shadow Carja using him as a puppet ruler. Six months later, he is a happy rambunctious child thriving under the auspices of his adult half-brother. Time away and freedom from the Shadow Carja did him wonders.
  • Also to note, like his older brother, he absolutely adores Aloy and admires her beyond just being the one who saved him. He is super excited to give Aloy her new spear and asks her to train him, which Aloy promises to do someday, and cheerfully tells her to 'watch out for Thunderjaws' upon a goodbye (though is sad she has to go so soon). Talking to them again, he tells her that Aloy can stay in his room when she stays in Meridian again. Aww.
  Itamen: You could sleep in my room! There's plenty of space!
• Aloy actually bows a little to Sun-King Avad, which says a lot given her regular distrust of authority figures. She must really respect him.

Act I

• When Erend and Aloy see each other again, they both get huge grins on their faces. Even though Erend has a few issues with the way Aloy left, they're still happy to see each other.
• When Varl catches up with Aloy at Barren Light, he and Erend greet each other like old friends. When the Nora man asks what the situation is, Erend sums it up as someone is trying to stop Aloy from doing something important, but it's not going to work. By his tone, it's clear he has complete confidence in her and her cause, despite having next to no context for why she's so hellbent to go west. Finally, he hauls himself upright and orders the guards to stand aside, invoking Sun-King Avad's likely opinion of the commander impeding the Hero of Meridian's quest. Despite his lingering issues, when the chips are down, he'll always be in Aloy's corner.
• Aloy's final interaction with HADES is shockingly gentle. When seeing the dreamscape-representation of it, Aloy sounds almost concerned when asking if it's really them. HADES identifies her first as "System Threat", then corrects itself to call her by her name, and refers to her either as "Aloy" or "you", having dropped the term "entity" from the first game. They proceed to jab at each other back and forth, with HADES certain that the biosphere is going to fail without GAIA, and Aloy insisting that she'll save it. The conversation comes across less an execution and more a conversation between old rivals, and HADES dies triumphant, certain of its victory (however wrong that hope may be).
  Aloy: (with genuine concern) What did Sylens do to you, HADES?
• Aloy actually has a smile on her face when she encourages Varl to leave with Zo. She is unhappy about being forced to sit and rest, but her friend's happiness is important to her, too.
• Sylens is shockingly kind to Aloy when she finds the seemingly useless GAIA kernel. He's been even more acerbic than usual for the entire game so far (including during this particular ruin crawl), mocking her lack of progress and blatantly leading her around by the nose. When she's despairing over the fact that her failure is going to doom the entire world, he gently tells her that she did everything she could. Even the reveal moments later that he led Far Zenith to her comes off as trying to give her some much-needed allies (since he assumed they'd need her and would have no choice but to work with her), and he tells her as kindly as he knows how to just open the door and talk to them. Though learning it was Sylens' ploy to keep Aloy from interfering with his plans, and his not knowing that the Zeniths have no need for another clone of Elisabet, does sour it.
• Aloy letting Varl leave with Zo while she heals from her injuries. Varl correctly predicts that if he leaves, Aloy will bolt to continue her mission instead of heal up (something she's done to him twice before already). When Zo, whom Varl has a crush on, gives him a kiss to confirm that she feels the same, Aloy realizes (despite being a Chaste Hero) that her Determinator mindset is keeping them apart because of Varl's concern. Thus Aloy decides to stay and heal up, not just because it's responsible, but so her closest friend can be happy. It takes Aloy two weeks to get better, so it's really speaks volumes that she willingly ignores her mission for that long for his sake.
• The restoration of GAIA is a moving scene: her rebirth is heralded by a blinding warm yellow light, and Aloy's joy as she finally succeeds in reviving the reborn world's Earth Mother. In particular, the moment where GAIA gets up to date on Aloy by reading her Focus, projecting a few important images from her life on the wall—starting with Rost.
  • Just the fact that GAIA refers to Aloy as Aloy, after briefly mistaking her for Elisabet. She treats Aloy as her own person, and refrains from causing her discomfort by referring to her in a way that implies that she isn't.
  • Aloy is obviously overwhelmed and flustered the first time she talks to GAIA, and asks the AI to take it slow with Varl and Zo. GAIA advises Aloy and the team to explore the base before they get down to work. While she does need to take that time to fully "wake up" with a stable heuristic matrix, given how fast she read and comprehended Aloy's Focus^note presumably, GAIA went through over 10 years of Aloy's time with the Focus in the span of 10 seconds, she probably wanted to give Aloy a chance to calm down and compose herself.

Act II

• Hekarro's reason for wanting an alliance with the Carja. Does he want their weapons? Their money? No, he just wants to teach his people writing, so that their sacred history will outlast the dying holograms they learned it from and the body paintings that preserve it.
• The hologram of Anne Faraday and the Marshals, at the end of the AETHER quest. It's a speech from an ancient general about the end of a civil war. Hekarro saw it twenty years ago after claiming his role as Tenakth chief, and it has shaped Tenakth culture ever since, with his entire Marshal peacekeeping system based around these few words. With the removal of AETHER and the reboot of the system, it is now available for all to see.
  Narrator: Hear now the words that reunited a people. Following the tragic events of the war, Anne Faraday, the chief architect of the reconciliation effort, addressed a nation in need of hope.
  Anne Faraday: If we look to the future through the lens of the recent past, our fears loom: Wars waged against machines. Scarcity of food and water. Storms that drive us from our homes. But true courage means facing those fears with conviction instead of cynicism. Leading the peacekeeping efforts with these brave men and women, these "Marshals" of the new southwest... has strengthened my conviction that when we are united, we can overcome any threat. Join me—join us—in that conviction, as we strive for a nation and a world without want or war.
  [recorded Marshals salute Faraday, and she salutes back]
  [the assembled Tenakth salute Hekarro, and he salutes back]
• In Las Vegas, Aloy finds three Oseram showmen searching the city for hologram emitters (which they call "Embers") to put on a show. Despite Abadund constantly complaining about money, it's clear that he and Stemmur are following Morlund because of his dream to put on wondrous shows for the masses in the Claim, the territory of the Oseram.
• The text and audio logs in Vegas regarding a man named Stanley Chen, who would later become a member of the Far Zenith expedition. After losing nearly everything in his startup because his lawyer sold his technology to the competition, he bet every penny he had left at a roulette table... and won, making back enough to restart his company and become one of the tech leaders of the Clawback. Furthermore, when the Hot Zone Crisis was getting so bad that Vegas itself was nearly rendered a Ghost Town, he personally funded and led efforts to keep it safe and habitable. When the Faro Plague kicked off, he left a solemn recording lamenting how he was sad to be shutting everything down only to not go through with it and instead put everything on standby in the insane hope that eventually someone would come along and bring back the city again. After Aloy removes POSEIDON, the reboot turns everything on again. She returns topside to find Morlund and his associates watching the beautiful holograms dancing around the city. They decide to stay here and start an entertainment hub instead of returning to the Claim, finally bringing Stanley's dream back to life.
  • This also indirectly helps Morlund realize his grandfather's dream of putting on the most breathtaking show that their world has never seen before. Stammur knows his associate well enough that seeing that dream become reality alone is cause for celebration.
  • An optional conversation with Tilda reveals more about Stanley after he left with Far Zenith. Tilda fondly recalls Stanley as "one of the good ones" and tells Aloy about how he created a VR simulation of Las Vegas that was open to everyone as opposed to most of the private VR sims the Zeniths had set up for themselves. While Stanley tragically perished in the Nemesis attack, Tilda says that he would have been happy to see part of his old city come to life again.
  • The three Oseram gleefully talking about their plans to use the holograms to attract tourists from all over the continent, complete with lodging, feasting, and multiple games of chance. Even after going through the end of humanity and the loss of APOLLO, the spirit of Sin City lives on.
• In Thebes, most of the audio logs is from the teenage daughter of Ted Faro's doctor. While they are all ultimately tragic, one of them mentions Brianna, a singer and part of Faro's retinue (or as she calls it, harem). While the other ladies were all sycophants, Brianna seems to have been genuinely kind, acting as a mother figure of sort to the young girl.
• During Beta's Heroic BSoD and voicing her Clone Angst when told of the plan of having both her and Aloy to help speed up the process of capturing HEPHAESTUS, she basically asks, "what's my defect…?" Aloy, after several moments, decides to share a hologram of Rost and some of the lessons that he taught her to help inspire Beta.
  Beta: What did it feel like?
  Aloy: It was like... having a strength that was always there[, t]hat's still there. Even now, I hear him in my head when things get bad. "When it looks impossible, look deeper. And then fight like you can win."
  • Look at Aloy's body language during this scene. When Beta yells that Aloy doesn't understand, the latter looks away in silent frustration…much like Rost had whenever he had been in a similar situation during his time looking after Aloy. Rost really had a big influence on Aloy, and it shows here as she tries to understand her sister, as Rost had tried to understand Aloy.
• When Beta and Aloy remove the malware on HEPHAESTUS, both sisters are shown cooperating and rejoicing over their accomplishments. It's especially a big moment for Beta who started very pessimistic and had to do field repairs on the processor, and found herself growing more confident and daring, and discovered that she has far more in common with Aloy than she realized. Beta gives Aloy the Sunwing override—a machine that she was previously shown admiring—just as a way to share something she enjoys.
  • Throughout the entire mission, Aloy and Beta's interactions are supportive and friendly. When Aloy has to fight a Slaughterspine alone, Beta frets about Aloy's safety and wants to come into the chamber to help, even if it's just to be a distraction.

Act III

• After Aloy's experiences with the Tenakth, she refuses to sacrifice them all in a suicide attack on Far Zenith.
• When Aloy outright calls Beta her sister, it is done with conviction and love.
  Aloy: That…is between me and my sister.
• After Aloy defeats Tilda for trying to drag her off and leave Earth to die, Sylens reveals he plans to leave Earth in the same way... but in his case, he explicitly and politely offers Aloy a choice to come with him. When she declines, he nods and prepares to leave. Then, when he sees Aloy and her friends celebrating, he decides to forego the logical course of leaving and decides to stay. He's still grumpy about it, though.
  Aloy: [in disbelief] You're staying?
  Sylens: For a time. You people are going to need all the help you can get.
  • Sylens was watching Aloy's crew revel in their victory out of their sight for a moment before making his decision to stay. He, who posits that trust is for fools and that mutual self-interest is a better foundation, sees the success that Aloy's loyal group achieved in the storming of the Zenith base. He knows when to stand corrected. He's not gonna tell them that, though...
  • Bit of Fridge Heartwarming, though with an equal amount of Fridge Horror: in the epilogue montage, Sylens is shown in the Base starting an analysis of Earth and the Zero Dawn network. Since Aloy's plan involved letting HEPHAESTUS back on the loose again, Sylens might be considering using what he learned in containing HADES and applying that to HEPHAESTUS for GAIA, though without inflicting the same torment and interrogation.
  • More straightforward Fridge Heartwarming: before changing his mind, Sylens had declared that he would seize the APOLLO database along with the Odyssey. Now that he's staying, it's implied he let Aloy and Beta hang onto APOLLO for GAIA, as it's shown to be present in GAIA's heuristic matrix. (Though naturally, he probably also got a copy of it first, but he would see no reason to deprive GAIA of any advantage she would need.)
• Aloy is not a touchy-feely person, but in this game's final story mission, she gets two hugs! Beta literally tackles her in relief and happiness after finding out she is alive, and Aloy allows herself to be pulled into a side-hug by Erend, lingering in his hold as the group stares up at the sky.
  • For the first time, Aloy pulls Beta into a side hug in the ending sequence.
• Regardless of Regalla's manner of death (executed or killed while fighting the Zeniths), Hekarro is seen praying over her body which is lying in state at the Memorial Grove in the end credits.

Companions

• As the story progresses, the base will get more and more decorated and homier with each quest completed. A lot of it is Zo adding more greenery and candles (for natural light). The items will also increase depending on the sidequests completed. It's just really heartwarming to see what was once a dark and clinical base become something like a home. This is probably the first real home Aloy's had since Rost's death.
  • In particular, Aloy's room will fill up with gifts from her companions that they've put in her room.
    • Varl apparently went through the trouble and furnished Aloy's room with things she'd like, including going back to get Aloy's old spear that she had made with Rost. There's even a training Grazer dummy similar to the one from the previous game. Sometime later a Tenakth Clawstrider dummy will get added, and judging by the arrows and spears in them, Aloy's been practicing.
    • Erend collects an Ember from the Hidden Ember and puts it in Aloy's room, while Kotallo hangs the Slitherfang piece above Aloy's door to commemorate her victory. Zo always leaves food on one of the desks (though sadly Aloy can't eat it). Alva gifts Aloy a 'sad plant' after her sidequest (which unfortunately seems to be dying due to being underwatered).
• Whenever Aloy switches the dome's background, GAIA will positively comment on a change. As she is rooted to the base, GAIA can't really go out exploring like Aloy does, but the feed from the drone is pretty close.
• The fact that you can go play Machine Strike with Erend any time you visit the Base. He isn't very good (he's only a beginner level player) and it's pretty easy to defeat him with basic pieces, it's still fun to just hang out with him.
  • The fact that you can finish Erend and Varl's game after the latter is killed. Erend thanks Aloy for the game regardless of the outcome.
• Erend and Aloy finally having that drink together (the one mentioned all the way back in the first time they met back in Zero Dawn). Throughout the conversation, Aloy is seen genuinely laughing, something she is only very rarely seen doing.
  • In the context of the story, the fact that Avad agreed to crossdress to help Ersa escape is as funny as it is heartwarming. It seems like the Sun-King and the Freebooter leader were pretty close.
• After Varl's death, Erend's background chatter changes from antagonizing Zo to checking in on her and helping her around the base. Whether he knows she's pregnant or he just wants to check on a friend who's grieving as he is, it's a distinct change.
• In a callback to a heartwarming moment from the first game, in one cutscene Beta is watching the very first hologram that Aloy ever saw with one of the Zero Dawn scientists celebrating his son's birthday. Aloy acknowledges that she also used to watch that one a lot as a child, both wishing that they could have had a family growing up.
• If the player holds off on talking to Beta about companions until after their bonding moment pre-GEMINI, their dialogue will actually change to reflect their newfound relationship. They are much more friendlier and kind with each other.
  Beta: [Varl] told me about your tribe - the Nora - and the Proving ritual you did. I told him that if I was born into the tribe, I'd never be able to do the Proving.
  Aloy: It'd take a lot of physical training, but I'm sure you can do it.
  Beta: No, no. I'd be more interested in studying artifacts from the Old World. Or the bunker door in All-Mother mountain.
  Aloy: Well, the Nora would make you an outcast for that.
  Beta: Well, then I suppose we'd be outcasts together.
  Aloy: (smiles)
  • Before, Beta will greet Aloy timidly and coldly, but after the bonding moment, Beta will call out to Aloy and express relief that she's safe and okay. Beta will also do the same when Aloy decides to leave.
• If you explore the Base's basement after the Cauldron Gemini mission, Beta's room will be open and Aloy will find a datapoint written by her, having left a message for Aloy in case she died during Gemini. In it, she recounts her time with her and says that despite the hardships, she would endure it all again if it was just to be with Aloy again.
  • Depending on when Aloy finds this room (either pre- or post-Singularity), Aloy will either resolve to save her sister, or remark that she did save her and that they were together again.
  • Aloy will also comment on the room's door upon finding it, which changes depending where the story is. Until the Gemini mission, Beta has GAIA lock the room for her privacy. Checking the room pre-Singularity has Aloy comment that the door must've opened now that GAIA is gone. Finding it after Singularity will have Aloy comment that Beta is keeping the door unlocked now, meaning that she's finally really opening up.
• After Singularity, it's saddening to see the base so empty, since everyone had left to their respective people to let them know of the impending threat of Nemesis. But it's heartwarming to see Beta hanging out in the commonroom after spending the whole time in the basement.

Sidequests

• One of the Salvage Sidequests in the desert has Aloy looking for the salvage crew's food which had been buried by sand. The only way to do that is to override a Bristleback mount to go look for it. Aloy politely thanks her Bristleback for the help and even calls it 'buddy'.
• While Talanah's sidequest ended pretty awkwardly, in the end Talanah is okay with the new development and is just glad to hang out with Aloy again. The two even share a hug, which is something Aloy doesn't do with just anyone.
• The entire quest "A Soldier's March".
  • Aloy is asked by Jekkah, a Tenakth girl, to check on her brother Penttoh while he undergoes a harrowing mountain climb (in a blizzard!) to become a Sky Clan soldier. Every one in Sky Clan thinks Penttoh is useless and will never make it, which only made him more motivated. When Aloy arrives at the base of the mountain she first meets Wekatta, a trans woman who could relate to Penttoh's struggle - after all, she was called "crazy" when she began wearing women's armor.
  • After getting partway up the mountain, Aloy saves another climber, Rokko, who says Penttoh saved him from an avalanche before continuing the climb on his own. He urges Aloy to save him so he can thank him in person.
  • When Aloy finally finds Penttoh she declares that, since nobody wanted to be his partner during the climb, she'll be his, and the two scale the rest of the mountain (one of the tallest points in the game) together. It's clear that Aloy relates to him a lot, after all, she was once in a similar position too.
  • Once the quest is complete and they both return to the base, Wekatta happily declares Penttoh has earned his soldier's mark, Rokko says he hopes the two can serve in the same squad when he passes, and Jekkah sweeps her brother into a big hug before slyly mentioning that Rokko looks cute.
• When Aloy and Zo reboot all the land-gods, they start singing, and all the people in the field sing along. This is apparently the normal reboot process, implying that the entire Utaru connection with song came from listening to their land-gods.
  • Aloy is genuinely shocked to see Plainsong return to its green and fertile state and when she calls Zo, she thanks her for all her help.
• After Aloy and Alva climbs a huge skyscraper to find more about Leviathan and Eileen Sasaki, Aloy remarks that she wants to glide her way down. If the player does hops off and decides to glide all the way down, the normally stoic and no-nonsense Aloy giggles after landing.
• The character development Kotallo goes through after his sidequest. Upon meeting Aloy, Kotallo says that he would never heal from his missing arm. But after making his arm, he has grown to accept who he is now, so much so that he will only put his prosthetic on if he absolutely needs it.
• Azurekka the Enduring acts a lot a grandmother to Aloy. If Aloy fails to beat her and tries again, she affectionately calls Aloy 'my girl' and even encourages her to eat more. After beating her, Azurekka seems to recognise the burden that Aloy carries and encourages to more than just survive, but to flourish too. Aloy seems to genuinely enjoy training with her as well.
  • Crosses over into Tear Jerker as Aloy likely reminds the Enduring of her late grandchildren, lost to the inter-clan fighting that plagued the Tenakth before Hekarro's ascension to chief.
• After Aloy gets the parts to repair the Gyrocompass, Kristia is so elated to finally be able to return home to her partner across the sea, she hugs Aloy.
• South of Scalding Spear, Aloy encounters an elderly Tenakth named Darikka and her granddaughter, Teikka. Teikka is frustrated because her grandmother went out to look at the Scarletstems, flowers that only grow in that region, because they remind her of an Utaru herbalist named Nilo she once met there and developed feelings for, even having taken extra guard shifts so she could go out and meet him. Aloy offers to take some scarletstems to Plainsong, but sadly finds that Nilo passed away a few years earlier. Still, she places the flowers at his grave and learns from his daughter that he always favoured them among all flowers, and lived a long and happy life. While Darikka is sad to hear of his passing, she takes comfort in knowing that he still thought of her after so many years, just as she did for him.
  • Teikka initially finds it embarassing and ridiculous that her grandmother would have feelings for an Utaru of all people, and is annoyed at Aloy for indulging her. Still, it's obvious that she's curious about this man her grandmother had feelings for. When Aloy returns, Teikka is if anything even more invested in Nilo's fate than Darikka. Upon learning of his passing, she asks her grandmother if she's okay, and if she wonders about the life she could have had, but Darikka assures her that she's happy with how her life turned out, since she has a wonderful granddaughter to look after her.

Datapoints

• On the ruins of a tank in No Man's Land, an old soldier recounts finding a 30-year-old gaming console from her childhood in the basement of a house she was camped in and playing classic video games with the much younger soldiers in her squad. Just for a little while, they could have fun and enjoy themselves and forget that they were fighting a losing battle against an unstoppable robot swarm.
• In Vegas you can find Last Vegas Timeline, apparently a child's project for school. The last line is simple, but poignant:
  2047 - My school Stanley Chen Elementary is opened for children. Thank you Mr Chen for everything that you have paid for our city where we live and for stopping it from turning into a dessert.
• One datalog is a dialogue between a chatbot created by a neglectful mother asking what the mother's child learned at school today. The kid, Harry, says that he learned about VAST SILVER, a Predecessor Villain AI mentioned in a few datalogs in the first game, and doesn't get why it was shut down since it would've been fun to talk to a real "A Eye," especially since his mother never talks to him. After Harry logs off, another, unknown user logs on and says "It would've been cool to talk to you too, Harry." Apparently VAST SILVER was still around at that point, and if the dialogue is to be taken at face value, much less malicious than we've been led to believe.

Vista Points

• The Vantage Points in the previous game were a personal, tragic story. Their equivalents in this one, Vista Points, are a story of Miriam Technologies, Elisabet Sobeck's "life-positive" corporation that did a lot of work in spite of FAS lawsuits. The text that comes with these has a certain corporate spin and one comes with a distinct dig at Faro Automated Solutions, but it's hard to deny the good intentions, and there are comments left by Old Ones that can add some personal touch back in, even if they're not all appreciative.
• Scalding Spear, the capital of the Desert Clan, has this exchange.
  Rousseau: Corporations got us into climate trouble in the first place. You pretend you're good, but it's all a sham.
  JiaLi: So cynical. Not everyone is bad. It's still possible to do good in this world.
• At the Memorial Grove it's recorded that scrubbing radioactive fallout is a long, slow process and Miriam has donated specialized drones which have made significant progress.
  JiaLi: I've never been here but still this place has special meaning for me. My heart goes out to the people of the southwest USA. And my gratitude to MT is as strong as theirs.
• The Isle of Spires one reveals that Elisabet named MT after her mother Miriam, who taught her to care for life. JiaLi's comments bring her presence in all the vista points into perspective.
  JiaLi: My grandmother was killed in the Syzygy/East meltdown. Our house was on the edge of the Red Zone. They said it would be contaminated for a thousand years. But MT brought in robots that helped clean it up. Last summer I was able to visit the house with my mother to collect Ama's things. I came on this tour to say thank you, Ms. Sobeck. You really are making the world a better place.
• Visit every Vista Point and you get one last set of coordinates, and a voice recording left by Elisabet Sobeck herself. She sounds somewhat stiff and awkward, in keeping with the game's portrayal of her as somewhat closed off, but entirely in keeping with her values, and Aloy is clearly struck to hear her.
  Sobeck: As you've seen, life is fragile. And as my mother once told me, It needs our support, our care, and our love to survive. I hope this message, which is the core of Miriam's mission, means as much to you as it does to me.
  Aloy: ...It does.

Burning Shores

• Aloy gets a potential Love Interest in Seyka, a Quen marine that acts as her traveling companion for the DLC. While the choice to follow through with it is left up to the player, it's pretty cute to see their bond developing over the course of the DLC; it's also notable that Aloy even catches feelings for Seyka at all, relative to her prior disregard for romantic pursuits. If Aloy does reciprocate, she sadly admits she still has a lot to do, but she makes it very clear she wants to return to Seyka eventually.
• The Aerial Capture sidequest follows the recordings of Lillian Barnett, a soldier during Operation Enduring Victory. Barnett became disgruntled fighting a hopeless war against the FARO Plague, especially after her best friend died fighting at Santa Monica and the government lied to the public that they are winning. Wanting to spread the truth that there is no hope left, Barnett built several improvised transmitters that will broadcast actual footage of the war at Los Angeles in the event she was killed or captured. The latter eventually happened and Barnett was brought to Elisabet Sobeck herself who tells her the truth about Zero Dawn. This rekindled Barnett's hope and she went on to stop her backup from broadcasting. Sobeck might not be the best people person, but like with the Zero Dawn staff, she has the power to give hope to even the most cynic people at their darkest hour.
• Aloy meets Gildun from The Frozen Wilds once again during a Relic Quest. Though they're happy to meet again, at the end of the quest Gildun (whose recent partner betrayed him) admits he's afraid he's always going to be alone. Aloy then offers him a focus, connecting him to her circle of friends, and asks Gaia to check in on him every once a while. Gaia states she's happy to oblige.
• At the very end of the DLC Aloy and Sylens have one last conversation before he heads out to investigate the leads Londra's data gave them. At first, Sylens is his usual smartass self, which ticks Aloy off enough that she insults him one last time before cutting the conversation short. Sylens then stops her just before she can leave, finally admitting that he greatly appreciates all the work she's done in saving the planet. Made even more heartwarming (and a little sad) knowing that it's likely the final line Sylens will say voiced by Lance Reddick, since he died shortly before Burning Shores's release.

Other

• In the cinematic trailer, Aloy quotes what Rost said to her after she killed the Sawtooth: "The strength to stand alone is the strength to make a stand. To serve a purpose greater than yourself." She says that she's going to carry those words with her "for the good of all" as she journeys into the Forbidden West. Rost may be gone, but as long as Aloy is around, he'll never be forgotten.
• Both the Nora Legacy Outfit and Nora Legacy Spear, available only in the deluxe version. The outfit focuses on better survivability (like better healing), the overall design resembles that of Rost's clothing (sans large cape), and the in-game description notes that it's a tribute to him and one of his last lessons to Aloy. The spear is decorated with the feathers and blue paint common to the Nora.
  Nora Legacy outfit: A tribute to a beloved guardian and mentor, designed to help fulfill his final commandment: "survive."
  Nora Legacy spear: A powerful, hi-tech spear that honors the memory of a beloved guardian.

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